Hubble image
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)
Gear
Years ago I purchased my first scope from a big box store like many others and after some time was discouraged by the lack of quality. I was busy, so lost interest in pursuing it further. It was this 4.5 inch Meade reflector on an Alt/Az Go To mount.
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Then a few years ago my brother in law gave me this Orion 4.5 inch reflector on a basic manual Equatorial mount he got from a client of his. After replacing a few needed parts I started to get enthused again and had to learn how to operate a manual EQ mount.
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Once I retired, it was time to get more serious and I started learning all I could about Astronomy. I got an Orion XTg 10 inch Dobsonian mount GoTo scope. It's a great visual scope, I liked being able to find Deep Sky objects and planets.
254mm primary mirror 1200mm focal length f/4.7 focal ratio |
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My desire now is to be able to photograph the objects I like to view, so I upgraded again to this Explore Scientific Maksutov-Newtonian. It has a meniscus correct lens at the front, a spherical primary mirror and elliptical flat secondary. This gives a flat field, coma free, color aberration free, and no star spikes from secondary mirror support veins.
152 mm mirror 731mm focal length f/4.8 focal ratio I use a Canon T3i for the imaging camera, a ZWO 120MC for guide camera which doubles as a planetary camera on the Dobsonian. The scope is mounted on a Celestron AVX equatorial mount. |
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You can see a lot through binoculars also. I have a really nice 8x40 Minolta
binocular I've had for 35 years or more and this 25x70 set for looking deeper.
binocular I've had for 35 years or more and this 25x70 set for looking deeper.
This SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i is my latest purchase. It's very easy to "grab and go" for direct camera imaging of objects or the Milky Way. I mounted it on my old reliable Bogen 3050 tripod from my studio days, which makes a very stable base. It is equipped with WiFi so I can control it after setup without touching the camera or mount and so avoiding vibrations
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Here's the AstroTech AT72ED II That will fill in the gaps in focal length between my current setups. It comes in at 430mm at f/6 or 344mm at f/4.8 with the focal reducer/flattener. Really nice FPL53 and Lanthanum glass elements. Has a built in camera rotater for easier framing. I'm showing two use cases, visual setup on the left and astrophotography setup on the right with guide scope and AsiAir controller. Of course it came with a big box of clouds so now just waiting for clear skies again.
Added a new SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Gti mount. It's a step up from the basic star tracker as it adds Go To capabilities and RA and Dec controls. So far I've been impressed with it's accuracy when using guiding. I've been able to get good 5 minute exposures.
